I'm looking to design a circuit around a pic MCU and I need a little kick in the right direction to get going. Basically, the circuit is going to be used for a game. If you've ever seen the game where people put a bottle on top of a pvc pipe and try to knock it off with a frisbee then you'll know what i'm talking about. I want the illuminate the pvc pole with RGB leds. The pole will be one color during normal play. A sound sensor will be used to detect the frisbee hitting the pole. When the sound sensor picks up a hit, the pole will flash red. An IR emitter and detector pair will be used to detect the presence of the bottle. If the bottle it not present for more than a certain amount of time, then the pole with cycle red (sort of like a police beacon, or hockey goal lamp) I want to achieve this affect by lining the pole with 6 or 7 independent lines of 5mm RGB leds. So, i know i need a PIC with timing capabilities, at least 2 inputs, 18-21 outputs (To drive the R, G, and B of the 6 or 7 RGB led arrays) but i can't be sure that i have it all figured out. Any help with selecting the cheapest pic possible would be great. Also any suggestions on my project are also appreciated.